Swiss Extradite Man in Bombing Case

Dec. 23, 2000

BERN, Switzerland (AP) _ Switzerland has extradited to Argentina a man accused of giving false evidence in the investigation of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 86 people.

Two Argentine police officers accompanied the accused man, Wilson Roberto Dos Santos, a Brazilian national, on a flight out of Zurich late Friday, Swiss authorities said. Dos Santos was arrested in Switzerland in March on an international warrant.

Argentinian authorities accuse Dos Santos of lying to police by falsely claiming he had tipped off a local diplomat four months before the 1994 attack.

He claimed he had received information from a former Iranian girlfriend who allegedly had links to terrorist groups. The woman was arrested in 1998 in connection with the Jewish center explosion and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people, but was released for lack of evidence.

There have been no major convictions in either of those two bombing attacks in Buenos Aires. Israel has accused Argentine authorities of slow and inept investigations.